Saturday, December 24, 2016

A Nazi grave in the jungle: Hitler’s explorers went on secret quest to carve out a colony

A Nazi grave in Laranjal do Jari, Brazil that reads: “Joseph Greiner died here of fever onJan. 2, 1936, in the service of German research.”

An enduring air of mystery surrounds the towering cross emblazoned with a swastika in a cemetery near the remote Brazilian jungle outpost of Laranjal do Jari. An inscription on the cross, in German, reads: “Joseph Greiner died here of fever on Jan. 2, 1936, in the service of German research.”

Why is there a Nazi grave in the far reaches of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest?

Researchers have meticulously documented how Nazi war criminals fled to South America in the aftermath of World War II. But much less is known about a plot that took root before and during the war: The Nazis hoped to establish a German bridgehead in South America by conquering a swath of the Amazon River Basin.

The secret plan, called the Guyana Project, had its origins in an expedition into the Amazon led by Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel, a Berlin zoologist, documentary filmmaker and member of Hitler’s SS. (more...)